Almost too late
by sallythedestroyerofworlds23
Summary: The Winter War is finally over, and Ichigo reflects over the pain of almost losing the one most important to him.


Ichigo Kurosaki sat in the dark room inside the Squad Four barracks. He had been in here for a few days, white bandages wrapped around his torso and arms, covering the remnants of the wounds he'd suffered from the war. They were once fatal wounds, but thanks to Inoue's help, all that was left now were a mild gashes-nothing life threatening. Ichigo was grateful, mostly because now the members of Squad Four could focus on helping the more seriously injured.

Ichigo looked out the only window in the room and saw the crescent moon glowing just outside. A shiver ran through him as it reminded him of the never-changing moon at Hueco Mundo. This was different, however. Just by looking at it, he could feel its silvery white glow illuminating the room, falling on his skin. Its shine seemed pure and secure, unlike the moon at Hueco Mundo, which felt more opaque and desolate.

He was brought out of his reverie by the feeling that someone was behind him. He knew who it was just by sensing her reiatsu, but still, he turned his face to confirm it.

"Rukia." he said, watching her as she stood on the doorway, eyes downcast, a rarity for her. "You shouldn't be up and walking around. You should be resting." he scolded.

For a moment she didn't say anything, just raised her eyes a little, but instead of looking at him, she looked out the window towards the moon.

"I didn't want to be locked in that room anymore." she finally said.

"Its late." Ichigo pointed out. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Shouldn't you?" she retaliated, looking at him at last, her eyes momentarily regaining that strong challenging look they usually held.

"Touche." he shrugged. Then his eyes fell on Rukia's small hand, which had been placed on the doorframe this entire time, and only now did he noticed how tightly clenched it was. Rukia was probably using it to hold herself up. He cringed at the thought.

She really shouldn't be walking around. It had only been, what? Three days? Four? Four days since the Winter War had finally ended, and the consequences had been devastating.

Many were terribly injured-some beyond hope of recovery. Lots of sacrifices had been made, blood shed by the gallons. Still, one memory from the war lingered in Ichigo's mind as fresh and painful as a newly opened gash.

It was right near the end of the final battle against Aizen and Gin…

XXxXx

_Ichigo parried away blows from Gin's stretching sword, its speed making it nearly impossible for him to dodge in time. Not far off, his dad and the newly arrived Byakuya and Kenpachi fought against Aizen_

_The two Captains had arrived shortly after Ichigo and his dad made it out of the Senkaimon and into Soul Society. During the short moments when they'd gotten to speak, the Captains said they'd left Hueco Mundo along with Rukia, Hanataro, Yachiru, Renji, Chad, Inoue and Ishida. Everyone but Kurotsuchi and his Vice Captain, Nemu._

_All of them except the two Captains, Rukia and Ishida, had come to Soul Society. The others were too injured to be of any help here. Byakuya and Kenpachi came immediately to assist the fight, while Rukia and Ishida were ordered to go to Karakura Town-now inside Soul Society-and help its residents, not to mention guard it against any surprises Aizen had in store._

_Ichigo had been relieved to hear Ishida had been successfully healed, and also that Rukia was alright. But he would have preferred if they'd stayed back on Earth with the others, so they'd be as far away from Aizen and Gin as possible. As it was, they had come, but at least, Ichigo told himself, they weren't in the middle of the fight, and if anything happened to them, Ichigo would sense it and would be close enough to help._

_Or so he thought._

_It was right in the middle of his fight with Gin; his dad and the others looked like they were just about to deliver their finishing blow on Aizen, using all their power combined to do so, while Ichigo had just-somehow-gained the upper hand, and was getting ready to finish off the no-longer grinning man. It happened just as he raised Tensa Zangetsu, ready to bring it down through his shoulder and slice him in half, but…His sword went through Gin like going through air. Ichigo's eyes widened. _

"_Wha-?"_

_He heard Aizen laugh from behind, his fight with the three Captain-class Shinigami suddenly stopped. Ichigo's eyes widened, and he realized it was too late as he watched the once again smiling figure of Gin become translucent, fading into nothingness right before his eyes._

"_Gotcha." laughed the man behind Ichigo. His entire body froze as he heard the voice that wasn't Aizen's._

_He turned around._

_Right were Aizen had been lying a moment ago, ready to be defeated, was a silver-haired man, grinning even as he bled on the ground._

_Realization dawned upon Ichigo. If the Gin he had been fighting was a dupe, and the real Gin had been replacing Aizen, then, Aizen was…_

"_NO!" Ichigo yelled just as he felt a well-known reiatsu spike, ready for battle._

_And then he ran._

_He didn't turn even once to see if the others were following, only heard his dad call out to him once._

"_Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!" he cursed over and over, rage welling up inside him for not noticing the trick before._

_If she got hurt because of his mistake…_

_No. He couldn't think of that possibility. He just had to make sure he made it there in time. He would. He had to._

_Ichigo's heart was beating so fast he could hear the thump in his ears as he made it into Karakura, one thought alone running through his mind._

_He finally came to an abrupt stop, right before three figures._

_One was on the floor, he recognized Ishida immediately. He could see that though badly hurt, he was still breathing. Aizen stood with his back to Ichigo, his now long brown hair blowing in the wind as he pulled back his sword, fresh dripping liquid tainting the blade. And then a body, small and slender, fell to the floor with a thump._

_Ichigo's blood ran cold._

_He didn't even notice as Byakuya, having gotten here just after himself, charged with an uncharacteristic brashness, rage plain to see in his eyes as he attacked the man who was responsible for his sister's body lying on the floor now-cold and unmoving._

_Byakuya attacked Aizen with all his power and speed. Any other person would have been helpless against such a display of skill, but Aizen only laughed as he dodged and sparred with an utmost ease._

"_What's this?" he sneered. "The cold-blooded Squad Six Captain come to avenge his little sister? You've gone soft, Byakuya." _

_Byakuya responded only by fixing him with a look of pure hatred, just before attacking again._

_Ichigo stood frozen in place. His mind trying to comprehend the sight before him. The petite raven-haired girl, lying still in a pool of dark red liquid. Her eyes were closed, and showed no sign of ever reopening._

Rukia.

_He couldn't breathe. This couldn't be real. This __**could not**__ be happening._

_It wasn't until he saw his father shunpo to the girl's side, gingerly pick up her body and move her out of the way to keep her from further harm, that something within Ichigo awakened._

"_**RUKIA!" **_

_The scream ripped through him like a primitive call. His eyes were suddenly blind with fury. Without thinking, he yelled as he charged head on at the man who had caused this._

_Aizen looked over his shoulder, having just thrown Byakuya's battered body aside like a rag doll. He looked at Ichigo with an amused smile._

_Ichigo swung Zangetsu with an animalistic rage, and the real fight begun…_

_It was a long while later than Ichigo found himself standing over Aizen's dead body._

_Had he done that? He wasn't sure. He didn't care. The man was dead. And Rukia…_

"_Rukia!" he called, desesperation creeping into his whole being as he ran to the place where she lay._

_His dad was standing before her, a grim look on his face as Ichigo stopped. He stepped forward and put a hand on Ichigo's shoulder, his eyes meeting with his son's with a somber expression before flashing away to where Aizen's body lay. Ichigo didn't waist a second._

_He was immediately by Rukia's side. As he looked at her, he's legs gave out from under him and he fell to his knees by her side. "Rukia," he choked, his throat constricting as he looked at her body, badly battered and covered in wounds. She'd never seemed so frail as she did now._

_Her eyelids fluttered at the sound of his voice, and he called again, "Rukia!" she was on her back, and he was tempted to touch her hand, wrap it in his, just to feel her, to reassure himself that she was there…But he didn't. He just looked at her helplessly; lost._

_Her breaths were coming in short, shallow gasps. Her violet eyes, barely open, looked around until she found his eyes. Her lips parted slightly, and then she started struggling; trying to speak, he realized._

"_Don't." he urged, seeing her pained expression, but his voice came just barely above a whisper. _

"_I-Ich-" she struggled, choking and gasping for air, but not willing to give up. "Ichi-go." she finally managed. "Ichigo." she said softly, and her face seemed to relax. Her breathing, though still shallow, became more even. He eyelids fluttered shut, and for a moment, Ichigo feared the worst._

_But then he saw that she was still breathing, taking in desperate gasps in a seemingly impossible battle to stay alive._

_His father showed up again soon after. He started to pick up the barely-breathing Rukia, but Ichigo stopped him, gathering her carefully into his own arms, cradling her against his chest. He stood up with her, his own wounds forgotten, and his dad fixed him a look. _

'_Are you sure?' he seemed to be asking, obviously referring to him carrying Rukia._

_Ichigo knew why his dad would be worried. Not only was Ichigo badly hurt himself from his fight, but he must have seen how hard it was for Ichigo to see Rukia this way He remembered the first time she'd been injured while being with him-it had been Grimmjow, he'd put his hand through her stomach, then thrown her on the street. After fighting Grimmjow, Ichigo had watched as Rangiku Matsumoto took the small girl in her hands and carried her away to be cured. Ichigo couldn't do it himself. He couldn't bear to see Rukia that way._

_But this time, this time the fear of losing her for good was too great. He needed to keep her close, somehow believing that as long as he could hold on to her, she couldn't leave him._

_So he nodded to his dad, his fingers squeezing the unconscious girl in his arms, and they began to run, to get help._

XXxXxXxXXxXxXxXx

Ichigo's eyes held a haunted look as the image of Rukia, dying in his arms, burned into him. His heart ached just be thinking of that day.

He hadn't left Rukia's side as Inoue and Captain Unohana tried desperately to save her life. He wouldn't let Inoue get started on him until he was reassured by Unohana that her life wasn't in danger anymore.

Even then, he kept glancing nervously at her form, making sure she was still breathing.

"…Rukia…" he spoke her name softly, it felt good to say her name. It helped him believe she was here, alive.

She looked exhausted, surely tired by the effort of getting here, not even able to stand without using the doorframe for support. Ichigo stood from his bed, ignoring the momentary jab of pain he felt from one of his less-tended wounds. In his hurry to have Inoue continue to work on Rukia, some of his injuries had been barely closed.

He walked quickly to stand before her. "You shouldn't have come here, Rukia. You need to rest so you can get better."

"I'm fine, Ichigo." she said sternly, obviously ignoring the fact that she couldn't even stand on her own. Then she sighed, her expression softening. "I know it was a close call, but…" she was looking away from him, and for the first time Ichigo noticed that Rukia was well-aware of how close she'd come to death.

Ichigo wanted to speak. He wanted to say how scared-how terrified he'd been when he thought she was never opening her eyes again. He wanted to scold her for having scared him so much. He wanted to thank her for not leaving him.

But words alone could not express how he felt. So he did something unexpected. He took Rukia by the shoulders and met her eyes. His brown eyes gazed into hers fiercely, and Rukia looked like she expected him to yell, but instead, a look of shock took over her features.

Ichigo pulled Rukia into him, making her loose her steadying grip on the doorframe. She stumbled a bit but he held her up against himself, giving her the support she needed. He wrapped both his arms around her small body and placed his hands on her back, pressing her into him.

Rukia tensed at first, then relaxed and let herself melt into him, her hands clutching the white, thin fabric of his shirt, her face pressed into his chest.

"I thought…" Ichigo said, not finishing his sentence as a lump rose in his throat, cutting him off. _I thought I'd lost you._

He felt Rukia nod in their embrace. She didn't say it, but he knew. He knew she'd been afraid too, and he tightened his grip on her, pressing the side of his face to her hair.

"Idiot." he said, loud enough only for her to hear.

Rukia pulled her head back to look at him surprised.

"Don't _ever_ scare me like that again. _Got it?" _he said, his voice getting back to its normal volume and tone.

Rukia looked up at him. "Dumbass." she said, then pinched him. Hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, pulling back only slightly, not forgetting to support her. "What was that for?"

"For being such a worrywart." she scolded, then gave him a genuine smile.

"Thank you." she then said, surprising Ichigo.

"For what?" he asked, confused.

Rukia didn't look at him as she answered.

"For bringing me back."

_XxXxXxxXxXxxXxXxXXx_

**A/N: Ah there we go, fluff of the day! Gotta love those two ****J**** Don't forget to leave a review!**


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